Rochester inspection report 2024
Report for Rochester Prison
Summary
On the site of the UK’s first borstal, and with some accommodation dating back to the late 19th century, HMP Rochester in Kent is a training and resettlement prison for up to 766 adult men. The addition of the adjacent former young offender institution, Cookham Wood, which reopened during our inspection, added a further 180 places to this now joint site. Spread across a large area and comprising several different accommodation types, the prison was marked for closure only a few years ago but had remained open largely in response to the recent prison population crisis. The underlying problems that had condemned it to closure and replacement have not, however, gone away, and the poor outcomes we observed again at this inspection compelled me to write to the Secretary of State and invoke our Urgent Notification protocol. We have inspected Rochester on five occasions since 2013 and the prison has persistently underachieved. At this inspection, the jail attracted our lowest healthy prison assessments in three of our four tests – respect, purposeful activity and preparation for release – with many of the recommendations from our most recent 2021 inspection still to be addressed.